Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Review – Astounding Visuals and Music Save This Slug Fest

The LOTR trilogy was so epic, that even most of today’s cinema can’t match its scale, production value, and character interpretations. That is one reason why it has never been recreated nor will be. So, this 5 season prequel The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, which has a massive budget for $1 Billion, has a tough battle ahead but it will surely be a glorious one. Amazon Prime Video released the first two episode of the epic saga a few hours ago and most viewers and critics seem to agree that the premier was mediocre but hyped them up for what’s about to come. Following is our verdict of the premier of this new fantasy drama set in a familiar world.

WARNING – MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Rating – ★★★

Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Episode 1 and 2 Review

The expectations from this show were really high and it quite sad that even with such a tremendous scale it failed to meet them. So, before we get into what didn’t work, first off we’d like to congratulate the technical team of LOTR: ROP as they have done a phenomenal job. The visuals (I mean just look at them) of this series are unmatched and like never seen before, and so is the scale of the series. From VFX, editing, and cinematography to sets, locations, and costumes, everything is par excellence much like its predecessor. The soundtrack is well composed as well obviously with Bear McCreary helming it and the opening theme by Howard Shore reminds us why he is a living legend when it comes to scoring.

The series checks literally every box technically and successfully transports the viewers to back to Middle Earth. It is what is going on in there, which pulls this series down. What’s going on in there, you ask? Absolutely nothing! It seems like whatever they have shown so far in these two episodes could have been wrapped up in 45 minutes max. It is that sluggish and the bigger problem is that so far it is directionless. Two episodes in, and there is not even a mention of “The Rings of Power” and viewers have no idea what they are trying to showcase.

Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power premiere introduced us to a bunch of different characters (none of whom seem interesting or compelling so far) as well as different narratives. We have one narrative about Harfoot Nori and the stranger, who seems to me like Gandalf but most probably he’s not. Then there’s the obvious narrative of Galadriel’s hunt for Sauron which has been the biggest slug fest so far. Elrond and Durin’s narrative too was a bit of stretch and add to that the mysterious Arondir, Theo and Bronwyn story. So, whatever they are trying to pull off is quite difficult to decipher and frankly, very uninteresting so far.

The final moments of episode 2, however, does make things a little interesting and there just might actually be something great ahead. The good thing is that the show has awe-inspiring and mesmerizing visuals to back itself and that is something which didn’t let the premiere fall flat. It’s like, even though you are getting bored, you are continuously presented with such magnificent shots and a life-like world, that you can’t take your eyes off the screen. It is actually really disappointing how such a well made show is being let down by poor writing and plot, and I really hope they turn this around in the upcoming episodes. It would really be a shame if all these efforts and all that money go to waste just because of a lack of vision and direction.

Final Verdict – The audio-visual experience of the world presented by The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power acts as its saving grace. Experience wise it is too good to be on TV but vision/direction wise, the series seems to be struggling to find its ground. Hopefully that would be turned around in the upcoming episodes and end up making the viewers, fans, as well as the makers happy and satisfied. All the best PrimeVideo!

LOTR: ROP’s first two episodes are currently streaming on Amazon PrimeVideo. New episodes will debut on every Thursday or Friday on PrimeVideo depending on the region you live in, at 9 pm ET.

If you have any questions regarding House of the Dragon, feel free to ask in the comments below. For more content, stay tuned. As usual, like, subscribe and share our articles as we here are trying to build a community of people High on Cinema!